Saturday, August 31, 2013

There have been rumors that a hugely popular actress will be making her AV (adult video) debut within the year.

"It's probably Saki Takaoka. She even had a raunchy scene in the movie Monster released in Spring of this year."

"Maki Goto and Ai Kago are also good bets. GoMaki's younger brother was at the center of a scandal, and making a return via AV is a possibility as she finds it increasingly difficult to come back to showbiz. Kago also made her comeback in 2008 but her career did not fly off. But if an F-cup, baby face like her were to go to AV, she'd definitely produce a hit." - (evening paper journalist)

But the latest buzz is:

"It's this popular actress [Ms. K] who started off as a gravure idol. There was a point in time when any magazine she was a cover of would be completely sold out. She's got a Japanese-looking beautiful face with E-cup breasts. She's also had a steamy scene in a movie once. This is her destined route. Of course we can't reveal the name, but the negotiations are underway, and she will be compensated with about \150 million. We're thinking the video could sell over 2 million copies." - (Showbiz executive)

Morning Musume's popularity has been rising, thanks in part to the theories surrounding their leader Sayumi Michishige and her "True virgin image".

Morning Musume are regulars on Hello! SATOYAMA Life and also appear a lot on TV Tokyo. They have also been extending their activities towards other stations such as Fuji TV's FNS Uta no Matsuri amd NTV's PON!

"They owe this to Michishige's popularity. There are a lot of producers who are Michishige fans, rather, who are 'targeting' Michishige. And that in effect will lead to Morning Musume appearing in other programs." - (Geinou-pro writer)

"Former members repeatedly had scandals with other men. On the other hand, Michishige has almost none. And that's why she can say, 'I have a lot of admirers but I don't have a boyfriend'. This actually turns on most of the producers who put them on shows. She's the object of their fantasies" - (Geinou-pro writer)

"Everyone other than Michishige in this current generation of Morning Musume are kids, that's why Michishige stands out. There are of course tons of TV personalities and executives who want to claim her virginity. But recently, there has been someone on the Internet claiming to be her ex-boyfriend and is leaking her nude pictures." - Shinya Okawa (writer)

(Related posts HERE and HERE)
Singer/songwriter Hikaru Utada came to Tokyo's Himonya Kaikan, where the body of her mother Keiko Fuji lay in state, at a little past 8 in the morning of the 27th. At 40 past 8, she boarded the passenger side of a funeral coach as they headed towards a funeral hall within the city. The body had been presumably cremated. At around 10:40 in the morning, Hikaru came out of the hall along with her father, music producer Teruzane Utada, and left the venue in a car. Fuji-san indicated in her will that she did not want to have a funeral service.

"Nanako Matsushima (39) always tries to do her best to finish the taping of KyuumeiByoutou24ji so she can take care of their child, but has apparently grown weary of her "jobless" husband Takashi Sorimachi (39) who has been staying at their villa near Lake Biwa, fishing for black bass all day long. With their increasing gap in income, Sorimachi, who has been in a "Masuo-san state"*, seems to be avoiding Matsushima's parents who come to their home to visit their grandchildren. If this keeps up, they'll probably end up getting a divorce."

"After getting married to Matsushima, the number of his projects gradually declined. His only project for this year was the one-time drama Sousa Ikka Sawamura Kenji, which was shown last February. He is in the movie Kanojo wa uso wo Ai shi sugiteiru, which will be shown in December, but the lead is Takeru Sato and Sorimachi is just in a supporting role. Reasons cited for his lack of projects are that he can't draw in the ratings and that he has a bad attitude towards his co-stars and staff members whenever they're on site."

"Matsushima on the other hand has made a successful comeback thanks to Kaseifu no Mita, and is now being regarded as an 'actress who prioritizes child care', along with the likes of Rie Miyazawa. She has been giving her best effort to be with her daughters who are on their summer vacation. And even with all this, she still manages to keep her drama's ratings at 15%. She has already received numerous project offers that will commence once KyuumeiByoutou finishes."

"Sorimachi's name on the other hand, only managed to appear in the news a while back due to the doberman biting case (related post HERE). He should be helping Matsushima in childcare, but all he does is go to Lake Biwa. It's just natural that the couple will be in rocky waters now." - (drama representatives and staff)

*"Masuo-san state" - refers to Masuo in the popular anime Sazae-san, who keeps his surname but is practically living in the wife's parental home. This is different from being a "muko" or marrying into the bride's family. Although recently, this also refers to a man who lives off his wife's popularity.

LUNA SEA will be making their return to Music Station on the 30th, their first national TV appearance since reuniting in 2010. It has been 12 years and 10 months since they made their last appearance on Music Station (November 3, 2000). They will be performing their new song "Thoughts", and footages that will introduce LUNA SEA to the younger generation will be shown.
The vocalist Ryuichi (43) comments: "It's been a while since we last went on live TV, we're hoping to enjoy it".

"It might be weird for me to say this even if I'm the one who leaked the pictures, but Miyata-kun was very cautious with his surroundings; we didn't exit the karaoke nor the hotel together so that no tabloid will write about him."

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Former Kanto Rengo leader "Akio Kudo" (pen name) released a book, Ibitsu na Kizuna ~ The truth about Kanto Rengo, and revealed some of the relations between the showbiz world and the Kanto Rengo--- the gang which received media attention following Ebizo Ichikawa's drunken brawl and the attack on a Roppongi club in September of last year.

According to "Kudo", Masami Nagasawa used to date Takahiro Okazawa, former husband of Ryoko Hirosue, and was approached by the gang to pay off Okazawa's debts.
Okazawa had unsettled debts to a Kanto Rengo representative, and was threatened to "make Nagasawa pay off your share of debts". Okazawa then phoned Nagasawa who was in Taiwan for an on-location filming of a drama.
Nagasawa initially agreed to pay, but was warned by her friend to cut off ties with Okazawa, which eventually led to their break-up.

"Nagasawa was in Taiwan during autumn of last year for a drama shoot, and Iseya was apparently the one who cheered a homesick and worried Nagasawa up through Skype. But upon further investigation, it was found out that an executive of Nagasawa's agency made the sports papers write about Nagasawa and Iseya to camouflage her recent involvement with Okazawa." - (showbiz insider)

Nagasawa's agency admitted that Nagasawa and Okazawa know each other personally, but have never been romantically involved.

<Partial contents of the article>
* Situation: Yaguchi was shot with her mother and younger sister as they went out shopping.
* Yaguchi's clothes: Cut-sewn blouse, pants, sunglasses, hat, no makeup.
* Drastic change in her appearance after 3 months of self-imposed lockout.
* Has clearly put on a lot of weight since she was last seen.
* Carrying a bag from "MUJI Ryouhin" (did a lot of shopping; contents unknown).
* The first time seeing Mari Yaguchi after her net broadcast on 5/23.

<Mari Yaguchi's first live comments after her self-imposed lockout>
Reporter: "Do you have any message for your fans?"
Yaguchi: "I'm alright. I'm doing well. Sorry for making you worry."

Monday, August 26, 2013

Keiko Kitagawa held her first handshake event for her 10th year anniversary in showbiz. She shook the hands of 4,400 people in 2 days."Everything went by so fast, it all felt like a dream.""It's been 10 years during which I really felt everyone's love. If I'll have projects in the next 10 years, then I would love to keep on being an actress". "(At 37) I might be married already. It will all depend on the timing of fate.""(As for love) Nothing happened at all to me in the past 27 years, so I hope that I'll meet at least 1 person by the time I become 37."

(Partial Translation)
The production for the live action adaptation of Lupin III is at a standstill as they could not decide who to cast as Fujiko Mine.

Shun Oguri has been decided to play the role of Lupin, and Erika Sawajiri was originally touted to play Fujiko, but she turned down the role. Their next option was Riisa Naka, who had experience in sexy roles, but they had to go back to the drawing board because of her shotgun marriage with Akiyoshi Nakao. The producers are currently in the hunt for a popular actress who can also play mature roles, but they seem to be having trouble. Norika Fujiwara, Kyoko Fukada, and Masami Nagasawa's names have also been brought up, but they are yet to come up with a final decision.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

(Related post HERE)
Journalists gathered at Meguro-ku's Himonya mortuary where Keiko Fuji's body rests two days after the singer committed suicide [sic]by jumping off a high-rise apartment in Nishi Shinjuku on the 24th.

Around 50 members of the press were at the venue, but Hikaru Utada still had not shown herself yet. She is thought to be currently in New York, USA.

At 2 pm, a staff member of Himonya explains: "There was no development today. Her family? No one from her family came today". The gates of the funeral hall closed at 5 in the afternoon as the place went silent. Fuji's body is currently being preserved frozen as they wait for Hikaru's return to Japan. The body will be cremated afterwards.

Details surfaced this day concerning her acquaintance, a man in his 30s whom she had been living with in the said apartment for the past 6 years.

A woman in her 70s who resides nearby says: "They were not romantically involved. She was already old enough to be his mother after all. He was looking after Fuji-san in the unit".

Fuji trusted the man, who was also her former manager, as if he was part of her family. There are also reports that her ex-husband Teruzane Utada was the one who asked this man to take care of Fuji. The man himself was shocked, and testified to the police that: "We're not romantically involved. We stayed in separate bedrooms".

Fans flocked to the side of the rail guard underneath Fuji's apartment to offer flowers, beer, and Japanese wine as a makeshift altar was made. According to nearby residents, fans came to visit as early as the 22nd when news of her death broke out. A man in his 30s who came all the way from Niigata prefecture on this day to pay his respects said, "Both my parents were huge fans of hers. I was unable to contain myself so I came here".

Saturday, August 24, 2013

GACKT was found innocent after the police have finished their investigations following allegations made by a woman in her 20s of rape and indecent assault .The Metropolitan Police Department submitted documents to the the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office stating that GACKT is "not guilty", and will not be prosecuted on this event.According to police reports, the woman claimed that GACKT got her drunk in September of 2011, forced her to get in a car and committed obscene acts on her. GACKT then took her to his house and made violent advances towards her.Aside from gathering the testimonies of both parties, police investigators went to the restaurant the two visited. While finding out that GACKT and the woman indeed had dinner, and headed to his house afterwards, they concluded that there was no "objective evidence" that GACKT did commit such acts in the car and in his house.The woman only decided to officially press charges on GACKT in April this year. Upon investigation, the police sent a report to the Prosecutor's Office in late June of this year, indicating that GACKT is not guilty.This case was made public in May of this year after a weekly tabloid published an article based on the allegations made by the woman. GACKT answered to this, claiming that he did invite the woman to his house, but did not commit any kind of violence on her.GACKT's agency responded to inquiries made by Sankei Newspaper and comments: "He was bothered by this, but he now feels relieved. His lawyers will be taking over the rest, and GACKT will not be commenting any further on the matter".

Summary of Yuichi Maeda's review
* Praised the '70s anime for the cool characters, stylish highlight scenes, and passionate theme song. He also commended the anime for tackling social issues despite being a children's anime.
* Live action adaptation does not reflect the essence of Gatchaman and felt like a declaration of war towards the original version.
* Gatchaman has a radical ideology, where they would even neglect the lives of 10 million people for the sake of saving a single person.
* 40% of the movie consisted of the hero's childish logics, while the remaining 60% revolved around Gouriki's character JUN's illicit love towards Matsuzaka's character KEN.
* JUN felt like this character who only thinks about how she could score with KEN.
* The movie feels like it's for the audience to enjoy Gouriki's one-man love comedy skits.
* JUN has a terrible character, speaking ill of KEN's late girlfriend and dissing the nice and cool suits that they get to wear.
* Your children who will go watch the movie with you might ask you, "Why are those people just talking about women and aren't even setting out to war?"
* The biggest complaint here is why don't they just trash the internal discord within the group, and go hurry up and save the world.
* The scriptwriting is a mess. There's no end to the criticisms that can be made. The viewers will be left with nothing but questions, and despite all of this, the movie hinted that there will be a sequel.

Friday, August 23, 2013

"Matsuura always held parties in his huge 3-story mansion in Minami Aoyama. He would always drink at the dance club in the basement then takes women up to his bedroom on the 2nd floor. Once he's done, he gets on his favorite sofa and starts work on the drugs. That was his regular habit." - (regular attendee at his parties)

"Tomomi Kahara who was in shock after breaking up with Tetsuya Komuro once wandered around his secret club naked, probably due to the effects of drugs. Matsuura at that time pointed at Kahara and said, "I just banged Komuro's girl!" - (eyewitness testimony)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

T.M.Revolution's Takanori Nishikawa gave harsh words of advice to Reina Tanaka, formerly of Morning Musume, now with LoVendoЯ, when she guested on his show Nishikawa Takanori no Ienomi!! on NicoNico Live Broadcast.

LoVendoЯ is a "twin vocalist-twin guitarist" band consisting of members Reina Tanaka and Marina Okada on vocals, and Yuki Uozumi and Marin Miyazawa on guitars.

Tanaka was part of the unit since its formation in June of 2012 and balanced it with Morning Musume. She officially concentrated on the band after graduating from Morning Musume last May 21. (Related post HERE)

When asked about the reason for the formation of the band, Tanaka answered: "Because Tsunku-san said so".
When Tanaka told Tsunku that she wanted to graduate but still keep on singing, Tsunku offered her the position in the band.

While they were showing a live performance VTR of the band singing Takuro Yoshida's "Kyou made soshite ashita kara", Nishikawa asked:"Uhmmm... who's the one who decides what kind of music you play?"